History Fridge / HalfLifeAlyx

* When you get to the first substation and free the Vortigaunt, the player, having played the previous titles, might not think much of it. Vortigaunts would obviously be an ideal source of energy for an empire that frequently uses life-forms as resources, right? Especially to sufficiently power something that needs to suspend itself off the ground indefinitely. Regular Combine behaviour. That is, until you get to the ending and realize ''why'' it had to be Vortigaunts instead of just regular Combine generators: back in ''Episode 1'', the Vortigaunts demonstrated that they're the only ones thus far who actually have the capability to counter the G-man. They weren't powering the Vault's suspension, they were powering the containment field, because they're the only thing with a chance of keeping the G-Man in one place. Also hinting at this is the fact that the inside of the vault is full of green lightning energy, like the Vortigaunts'.

* Longtime fans may grow disappointed during their first playthrough when it became clear that there aren't any secret G-man sightings, despite them being a series staple. Then you open The Vault and it turns out the lack of sightings was actually a major plot point! Very clever, Valve, very clever...

* When talking with Alyx, why does the G-man constantly bend reality and teleport around, rather than sticking to just the relevant locations like ''Half-Life 1''? Well, Gordon is a theoretical physicist whose specialty was teleportation, so his reaction would have probably been mild surprise at best. Alyx is the first person in quite a while that he's gotten to talk to directly, and who also would be impressed or surprised by his abilities, so he's taking the opportunity to show off a bit.

** It could also simply be that he is using it to dazzle and wonder Alyx. He just comes in, warps all of reality, and then shows her that her father dies. She would be so flustered and off her game from his distractions, that she wouldn't have any time to think about the situation rationally. Gman is manipulating her.

* When G-Man denies Alyx’s request to remove the Combine from Earth, he declines it not because he ''couldn’t '' do it, but because his “employers” wouldn’t ''want'' him to do it. We know that G-Man has some control over space and time, but just how powerful is he really?

* When you get to the first substation and free the Vortigaunt, the player, having played the previous titles, might not think much of it. Vortigaunts would obviously be an ideal source of energy for an empire that frequently uses life-forms as resources, right? Especially to sufficiently power something that needs to suspend itself off the ground indefinitely. Regular Combine behaviour. That is, until you get to the ending and realize ''why'' it had to be Vortigaunts instead of just regular Combine generators: back in ''Episode 1'', they weren't powering the suspension, they were powering the containment field, because they're the only thing with a chance of keeping the G-Man in one place.

* The idea that this mission is what gets Alyx hired is a bit unnerving when you remember in ''Episode 2'' that G-Man had to fight to keep her alive in the first place, as an "mere child of no practical use to anyone." This implies that either because of the Episodes or through G-Man's convincing, the mysterious "Employers" gave him the greenlight for such an elaborate test to prove she's capable of what he desired from her -- even if G-Man still has his own personal goals in mind, it's not just him but an entire unknown collective that can throw her at whatever needs solving like how Freeman caused ''an entire species rebellion across Earth'' from his careful deployment.

* In the credits, as ''Half-Life: Alyx'''s logo fades away into the white expanse, only one letter is late to disappear: the "y" in "Alyx". Why is that? Mirror the "y" from the top, and you get the lambda, the symbol that is part of the ''Half-Life'' series. In particular, it's the symbol on Gordon Freeman's HEV suit, which is heard spouting a lifesign warning just as the "y" vanishes. Seconds later, the player is controlling Dr. Gordon Freeman again, if only briefly.

* Alyx's ending retroactively fixes an unexplained inconsistency in ''Episode 1''. In the ending of ''Half-Life 2'', time is frozen and the G-Man appears to deliver a monologue before taking Gordon away with him. The beginning of ''Episode 1'' shows much of the same, except that the G-Man is stopped by the Vortigaunts before he can do anything. One may think that the beginning of ''Episode 1'' is a retcon, but the event of Alyx offers another answer. The Vortigaunts are consistently shown to be able to match the G-Man, including in his ability to see the future, so it's possible that they also possess the same time-reversal power. With this in mind, it's entirely plausible that the inconsistency between ''Half-Life 2''[='=]s ending and ''Episode 1''[='=]s beginning to be the result of a CosmicRetcon by the Vortigaunts.
** Alternatively, there is no inconsistency and the G-Man was simply intercepted by the Vortigaunts when he returned to see Gordon after initially putting him in stasis.
*** Jossed. The Vortigaunts did in fact rewind time to save Gordon per WordOfGod.
* When you get to the first substation and free the Vortigaunt, the player, having played the previous titles, might not think much of it. Vortigaunts would obviously be an ideal source of energy for an empire that frequently uses life-forms as resources, right? Especially to sufficiently power something that needs to suspend itself off the ground indefinitely. Regular Combine behaviour. That is until you get to the ending and realize why it had to be Vortigaunts instead of just regular Combine generators, because back in ''Episode 1'', they weren't powering the suspension; they were powering the containment field, because they're the only thing with a chance of keeping the G-Man in one place.
* Remember how in ''Episode Two'', Alyx conveyed the G-Man's message to Eli, not remembering what she said herself? Here, the G-Man made sure that 19-year-old Alyx Vance wouldn't remember her meeting/deal with him. Then the G-Man ''plucked'' the 24-year-old Alyx Vance from White Forest in ''Episode Two'', leading to ''Alyx''[='=]s DistantFinale with Eli alive and Alyx missing. The G-Man and his powers implicitly fill in the PlotHole that ''Alyx'' would have: instead of putting this Alyx into his employment straightaway, he'd simply wait until the ending of ''Episode Two'' to abduct Alyx Vance in exchange for her father's life. When the G-Man said in ''Episode 2'' that "he doesn't squander his investments", he's ''not'' joking.
* Armored headcrabs and lightning dogs so far have only been seen inside the quarantine zone, providing an in-universe explanation for why they weren't present in any of the ''Half-Life 2'' games.

** Also, note the wording the G-Man uses. He struggled to find a ''suitable'' replacement. It's possible that for whatever job that the G-Man needs done, Adrian just didn't have the specific requirements for it.
*** In this case, it's probably Alyx's multitool and technical intelligence whereas Adrian is smart, but probably can't figure out how to hack Combine tech. Same with Gina Cross who has been stated by one of the developers to also be in G-Man's care. She is intelligent, but doesn't have immediate access to a multitool or wouldn't be able to figure it out in a timely manner.
* If you'll read Terminal newspaper cover, issued just after Seven Hour War, you'll find that the world's economy is in a dire state, with every major stock market being closed. Every, except Japanese, whose status is listed as "Unknown". It might seem that the entirety of Japan has gone dark during the Portal Storms and Seven Hour War.

* Longtime fans may grow disappointed during their first playthrough when it becomes clear there aren't any secret G-man sightings, despite them being a series staple. Then you open The Vault and it turns out the lack of sightings was actually a major plot point! Very clever, Valve, very clever...

* When talking with Alyx why does the G-man constantly bend reality and teleport around rather then sticking to just the relevant locations like Half-Life 1? Well Gordon was a theoretical physicist whose specialty was teleportation so his reaction would have probably been mild surprise at best. Alyx is the first person in quite a while that he's gotten to talk to directly who would be impressed or surprised by his abilities so he's taking the opportunity to show off a bit.
** It could also be that, as he's been stuck in a cell for some unknown amount of time (which would obviously have interfered with his abilities), this might be the G-Man's equivalent of stretching his legs.
* Could count as both Fridge Brilliance as well as Fridge Horror; When G-Man says the line "You wouldn't need all that to imprison Gordon Freeman" he's amused at the sentiment for two reasons; one, it's funny to think his prison would in any way be similar to Gordons, and two, he has personally imprisoned Gordon, twice. From his perspective, it's not all that difficult.

* Note the perspective when G-Man shows Alyx her father's death. The spot Alyx is standing in is about where Gordon Freeman was standing in the same scene in ''Episode 2''. The G-Man has replaced Gordon with Alyx in that scene, foreshadowing his replacing Gordon with Alyx as his asset.

* Some of the Zombies look like their Headcrabs have been attached to them for years, or even a decade, yet they're still as frail and comparatively unmutated as fresh victims. If the quarantine zone doesn't contain enough food for them to gorge on like seen in Black Mesa (where Zombies can be seen stuffing corpse meat into their chest-mouths), then the process to changing from a standard Zombie to a Gonome may require plenty of nutrition for the Headcrab to further develop. Compared to the quarantine zone, Black Mesa had a lot more meat left sitting around to eat.

** There's also the mysterious shadow woman working for the Combine and implied to be in contact with the Advisors with what seems to be a higher authority. And whoever she is, she seems to have the same awareness of G-Man as the player characters, Odessa and Eli. Either there's bigger forces of the Combine sympathizers at work than even Dr. Breen, who was practically disregarded by the Advisors, some higher position in the Combine can be distinctly human.. or the mysterious "Employers" are PlayingBothSides and no one's the wiser yet.

** There's also the theory going around that the entire game was some sort of alternate timeline or pocket dimension used specifically to test a theoretical adventure for Alyx to see if she was fit for employment, as she would have to exist in the games up to the ending of ''Episode 2'' to be plucked away. Never mind the whole TwistEnding of subverting Eli's deth altogether. Which means not only was the imprisonment potentially entirely for show, but the G-Man can ''alter or duplicate the course of history and/or cause a dimensional split'' just to prove a point.

** There's also the theory going around that the entire game was some sort of alternate timeline or pocket dimension used specifically to test a theoretical adventure for Alyx to see if she was fit for employment, as she would have to exist in the games up to the ending of ''Episode 2'' to be plucked away. Which means not only was the imprisonment potentially entirely for show, but the G-Man can ''alter or duplicate the course of history and/or cause a dimensional split'' just to prove a point.

*** Jossedd. The Vortigaunts did in fact rewind time to save Gordon per WordOfGod.

** In this case, it's probably Alyx's multitool and technical intelligence whereas Adrian is smart, but probably can't figure out how to hack Combine tech.

* Why can't Alyx use any melee weapons such as the series' iconic crowbar? Fact is, a crowbar simply wouldn't be of much use to her: Alyx is a normal teenager with little to no prior combat experience, going up against armored soldiers and a host of alien lifeforms. Gordon Freeman, on the other hand, is an adult male with combat training and physical conditioning, whose speed, strength, and durability is augmented by the HEV suit. In his hands, a piece of hardened steel could justifiably do some real damage against most things

* Why can't Alyx use any melee weapons such as the series' iconic crowbar? Fact is, a crowbar simply wouldn't be of much use to her: Alyx is just a normal teenager with little to no prior combat experience, going up against armored soldiers and a host of alien lifeforms. Gordon Freeman, on the other hand, is an adult male whose speed, strength, and durability is augmented by the HEV suit. In his hands, a piece of hardened steel could do some real damage to just about anything; in Alyx's hands, however, it wouldn't be nearly as effective as a gun or explosives.

* In the credits, as ''Half-Life: Alyx'''s logo fades away into the white expanse, only one letter is late to disappear: the "y" in "Alyx". Why is that? Mirror the "y" from the top, and you get the lambda, the symbol that is part of the ''Half-Life'' series. In particular, [[spoiler:it's the symbol on Gordon Freeman's HEV suit, which is heard spouting a lifesign warning just as the "y" vanishes. Seconds later, the player is controlling Dr. Gordon Freeman again, if only briefly.]]

* Alyx's ending retroactively fixes an unexplained inconsistency in ''Episode 1''. In the ending of ''Half-Life 2'', time is frozen and the G-Man appears to deliver a monologue before taking Gordon away with him. The beginning of ''Episode 1'' shows much of the same, except that the G-Man is stopped by the Vortigaunts before he can do anything. One may think that the beginning of ''Episode 1'' is a retcon, but the event of Alyx offers another answer. [[spoiler:The Vortigaunts are consistently shown to be able to match the G-Man, including in his ability to see the future, so it's possible that they also possess the same time-reversal power. With this in mind, it's entirely plausible that the inconsistency between ''Half-Life 2''[='=]s ending and ''Episode 1''[='=]s beginning to be the result of a CosmicRetcon by the Vortigaunts.]]
* When you get to the first substation and [[spoiler:free the Vortigaunt,]] the player, having played the previous titles, might not think much of it. [[spoiler:Vortigaunts would obviously be an ideal source of energy for an empire that frequently uses life-forms as resources, right? Especially to sufficiently power something that needs to suspend itself off the ground indefinitely.]] Regular Combine behaviour. That is until [[spoiler:you get to the ending and realize why it had to be Vortigaunts instead of just regular Combine generators, because back in ''Episode 1'', they weren't powering the suspension; they were powering the containment field, because they're the only thing with a chance of keeping the G-Man in one place.]]
* Remember how in ''Episode Two'', Alyx conveyed the G-Man's message to Eli, not remembering what she said herself? Here, the G-Man made sure that [[spoiler:19-year-old Alyx Vance wouldn't remember her meeting/deal with him. Then the G-Man ''plucked'' the 24-year-old Alyx Vance from White Forest in ''Episode Two'', leading to ''Alyx''[='=]s DistantFinale with Eli alive and Alyx missing.]] The G-Man and his powers implicitly fill in the PlotHole that ''Alyx'' would have: instead of putting this Alyx into his employment straightaway, he'd simply wait until the ending of ''Episode Two'' to abduct Alyx Vance in exchange for her father's life. When the G-Man said in ''Episode 2'' that "he doesn't squander his investments", he's ''not'' joking.

* Why did G-Man and his employers ''"struggle to find a suitable replacement"'' when they could've easily just replace Gordon with [[spoiler:Adrian Shephard, the protagonist of ''VideoGame/HalfLifeOpposingForce'']]? Disregarding the explanation that his character may not even be canon, [[spoiler:at the end of ''Opposing Force'', Adrian wasn't ''hired'' by G-Man, he was ''detained''. He was never meant to replace Gordon, he was just put into stasis so that he couldn't tell anyone about what happened at Black Mesa. The only reason that Adrian is still alive is because of G-Man's insistence, as he personally liked Adrian's ability to "survive against all odds", while G-Man's employers wanted him dead.]]
** Also, note the wording the G-Man uses. He struggled to find a ''suitable'' replacement. It's possible that for whatever job that the G-Man needs done, [[spoiler:Adrian]] just didn't have the specific requirements for it.

* Remember how ''Half-Life 2'' started off with Gordon just happening to appear on the day when Resistance Teleportation worked, rather convenient isn't it? That the thing the Resistance and Gordon needs to really get a leg up on the Combine, the thing that kickstarts Breen's knowledge of him? [[spoiler:Doesn't seem so convenient anymore with the knowledge that the G-Man and his employers can see all of time and space, he knew that it would be the right day to drop Freeman off before the events even happened.]]

* Longtime fans may grow disappointed during their first playthrough when it becomes clear there aren't any [[spoiler: secret G-man sightings]], despite them being a series staple. [[spoiler:Then you open The Vault and it turns out the lack of sightings was actually a major plot point!]] Very clever, Valve, very clever...

* Note the perspective when G-Man [[spoiler:shows Alyx her father's death.]] The spot Alyx is standing in is about where Gordon Freeman was standing in the same scene in ''Episode 2''. [[spoiler:The G-Man has replaced Gordon with Alyx in that scene, foreshadowing his replacing Gordon with Alyx as his asset.]]
** So, the Vault that [[spoiler:The G-Man]] is in happens to look almost exactly like a Bacteriophage Virus, which can be used as a kind of antibiotic, but can also cause bacteria to become far more dangerous. Is this a case of The Combine viewing him as an enemy through the lens of a biomechancial empire, or is it horrifyingly literal?

!! FridgeBrilliance

!! FridgeHorror

!! FridgeLogic
See them [[Headscratchers/HalfLifeAlyx here]].

* Remember how in ''Episode Two'', Alyx conveyed the G-Man's message to Eli, not remembering what she said herself? Here, the G-Man made sure that [[spoiler:19-year-old Alyx Vance wouldn't remember her meeting/deal with him. Then the G-Man ''plucked'' the 24-year-old Alyx Vance from White Forest in ''Episode Two'', leading to ''Alyx''[='=]s DistantFinale with Eli alive and Alyx missing.]] The G-Man and his powers implicitly fill in the PlotHole that ''Alyx'' would have: instead of putting this Alyx into his employment straightaway, he'd simply wait until the ending of ''Episode Two'' to abduct Alyx Vance in exchange for her father's life.

* Why can't Alyx use any melee weapons such as the series' iconic crowbar? Fact is, a crowbar simply wouldn't be of any use to her: Alyx is just a normal teenager with little to no prior combat experience, going up against armored soldiers and a host of alien lifeforms. Gordon Freeman on the other hand, is an adult male whose speed, strength, and durability is augmented by the HEV suit. In his hands, a piece of hardened steel could do some real damage to just about anything; in Alyx's hands however, it wouldn't do much good against anything.

* Why can't Alyx use any melee weapons? Fact is, a crowbar simply wouldn't be of any use to her: Alyx is just a normal teenager with little to no prior combat experience, going up against armored soldiers and a host of alien lifeforms. Gordon Freeman on the other hand, is an adult male whose speed, strength, and durability is augmented by the HEV suit. In his hands, a piece of hardened steel could do some real damage to just about anything.

* If you'll read Terminal newspaper cover, issued just after Seven Hour War, you'll find that the world's economy is in dire states, with every major stock market being closed. Every, except Japanese, whose status is listed as "Unknown". It might seem that the entirety of Japan has gone dark during the Portal Storms and Seven Hour War.